‘Death by 1,000 cuts:’ A win for Nelson pipeline opponents

Companies surveying for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline must provide property owners sufficient written notice before setting foot on their properties, a Nelson County judge ruled May 9. Though this doesn’t stop the project, pipeline opponents say any ruling in favor of landowners is a success.

“It gives us much more control over our property and the ability to protect ourselves,” says Randy Whiting, who lives in Horizons Village at the foot of Wintergreen, a strip of Nelson County that may soon be sliced by the proposed $5 billion natural gas pipeline, which is currently slated to run just under 600 miles through Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina, including several historically sensitive areas, national forests and private properties.

Eight months ago, Whiting says he and his neighbors in Horizons Village received a notice from Dominion, which said the company had plans to survey their land at some point in the future.

Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC—a company formed by Dominion Resources, Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas and AGL Resources—had previously entered properties for inspections without giving landowners a specific date of entry, causing at least 37 Virginia landowners to petition the Nelson County Circuit Court to force Dominion and its partners to give them more notice.

“That means they could come at any time. They could come tomorrow or they could come a year from now,” Whiting says. “How are we supposed to plan to be here?”

According to Whiting, many landowners want to be home when Dominion enters their property to make sure the power company’s crews are following all the rules. The recent ruling in Nelson is another way to hold the company accountable by law, he says.

“It means they have to follow through on their word, which is not something Dominion does very well,” he says.

Judge Michael Garrett ruled that Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC will have to issue new notices of intent to enter with specific dates of entry before inspectors or surveyors may step foot on someone’s property.

Though pipeline opposers say the fight isn’t over yet, they are certain this ruling will set the project back several months—so far, they’ve been able to slow the project down by at least nine months, according to Whiting.

“When you try to stop a pipeline, it’s death by 1,000 cuts,” Whiting says. “It’s very rarely one thing that stops a pipeline. Any little thing added to another little thing makes a difference. It is anything but over.”

In a similar case in Buckingham County, a circuit court judge ruled in favor of the ACP. Whiting says the different rulings make it more likely that the Supreme Court of Virginia will hear the case, and if the higher court sides with landowners, Dominion would have to abide by its ruling in every county in the state.

“In accordance with the court’s opinion, we will revise our landowner notices to include more specific dates so we can survey these remaining properties,” Aaron Ruby, a Dominion spokesperson, says. “Courts in other jurisdictions have reviewed the same landowner notices and found that they met the requirements of the statute, but of course, we will comply with the Nelson court’s ruling in these cases.”

Ruby adds that the Nelson court did affirm, along with every other state and federal court involved, that it is the ACP’s right to perform surveys, and that “surveying performed with proper notification is not a trespass.”

Ernie Reed, a media contact for the 1,000-member group of pipeline opposers called Friends of Nelson, says any time a judge rules against Dominion or the ACP, it is significant, and it “demonstrates that Dominion is not above the law.”

According to Reed, Dominion contacted the Nelson County Board of Supervisors this month about creating a citizen group to work with Dominion on some of the issues surrounding the ACP, and the BOS denied its request.

“We know that a great deal of what [Dominion has] told the public at different times has been far from the truth,” Reed says. “We don’t want Dominion in Nelson County and we’re going to fight until this pipeline is stopped.”

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a proposed $5 billion natural gas pipeline that will run just under 600 miles through Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina, will be visible from 7,178 parcels of land in Nelson County. A judge has ruled in favor of some Nelson landowners.

Permission denied Minutes before a decision was due, City Manager Maurice Jones denied several special event permits for rallies and counterrallies proposed on the weekend of August 12 in Emancipation, Justice and McGuffey parks—ground zero for the summer’s Unite the Right rally that left three

When we last heard from the owner of Blue Moon Diner in May, she said she was closing the West Main Street institution for renovations until early 2018. Now, as the new year is upon us, Laura Galgano says it could be fall before the lights come back on at the beloved home of the […]

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds,” wrote Herodotus, an ancient Greek philosopher, in what later became the U.S. Postal Service’s unofficial credo. “That obviously doesn’t stand true in Charlottesville

The former UVA police officer who killed his mentally ill son while defending his family last year won’t serve any additional jail time, an Albemarle County judge ruled December 5. On November 9, 2016, then-84-year-old Donald Short shot his 47-year-old son, Matthew, in the leg and abdomen after

For years, two out-of-town public television stations fought to claim status as Charlottesville’s “local” PBS station. Now they both can say that. Harrisonburg’s WVPT is being consolidated into Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corporation, the parent company of Richmond-based WHTJ, and the

Case study Cities are always involved in one sort of minor litigation or another, typically for unpaid taxes, but over the past two years, Charlottesville has been embroiled in a lot of high-profile cases, mostly as a defendant. Having a hard time keeping up? We are, too. Let’s review. Militias

Emotions ran high at the December 4 City Council meeting that began at 7pm when Councilor Kristin Szakos placed two paper plates piled with homemade cookies at the podium and ended at midnight. Mayor Mike Signer opened the meeting, during which former federal prosecutor Tim Heaphy presented his

Since the August 12 Unite the Right rally that left three people dead, Charlottesville residents have asked where the police were that day and why Fourth Street was open so that a neo-Nazi from Ohio could plow into a group of counterprotesters, injuring dozens and killing Heather Heyer.

New Dominion Bookshop owner Carol Troxell’s sudden death in January sent shock waves through Charlottesville’s literary community—and left some wondering what would become of the downtown institution. Established in 1924, one of the oldest businesses on the mall is now in the hands of a new

It’s a day those living in Charlottesville would rather not relive. That it left three people dead and countless injured, or that it was shut down before it was scheduled to begin last August 12 has not stopped Jason Kessler from planning a second Charlottesville rally—on the one-year

What UVA knew Through a public records request, the Chronicle of Higher Education obtained nearly 3,000 documents from the University of Virginia before, during and after the notorious August 11 tiki-torch march through Grounds. “Together, the emails shed light on the mentality of a university

By Natalie Jacobsen When we last heard from Johnathan Perkins, it was 2011. In the six years since, the University of Virginia School of Law alumnus has reached milestones in his career, and currently works as an associate attorney in Harvard’s Office of the General Counsel. But today he also

Maura McLaughlin still remembers the day in January 2015 she heard about a revolutionary way to practice medicine—like doctors used to do decades ago. Now she spends as much time as she needs with patients, who can come see her as often as they like at a reasonable cost. A key component: She

When the owner of a Park Street group home for at-risk adolescents went before the Board of Architectural Review November 21 to request permission to increase the number of teens allowed to live in the house, the board opted not to make a recommendation. “It was out of our purview,” says BAR

Charlottesville lost an icon November 18 when Kenneth Staples, owner of Staples Barber Shop, died at age 85. “I would describe Kenny as one of those guys who looked like a duck on water,” says Jim Carpenter, a local photographer and friend of Staples since the early ’70s. “He was so smooth, but

Some business owners say the Downtown Mall hasn’t been quite the same since shield-wielding white supremacists and neo-Nazis invaded it over the summer, followed immediately by the onset of a pilot parking meter program that required drivers to pay to park for what was once a free space. So

Seeking asylum He’ll tell you it’s not haunted, but owner and developer Robin Miller acknowledges the twisted history of the new Blackburn Inn, his historic boutique hotel set to open in Staunton this spring. Originally serving as the Western State Lunatic Asylum in the early 1800s, a hospital

Almost immediately after the violent clashes in Charlottesville August 12, Governor Terry McAuliffe established a task force to review the events of that weekend, and consultants presented a preliminary report November 15. The top two takeaways: This is a new era of protests—and a

During a preliminary hearing in which the alleged victim burst into tears and ran out of the courtroom, a judge certified rape and forcible sodomy charges against a former UVA student. Stephen Dalton Baril, 20, is accused of pushing another student onto the bed of his Wertland Street apartment,

What should a public park contain? Swings and slides, shaded benches, a grassy picnic spot? Should there be gestures toward the region’s history, ecology and culture? Could a park be a place of encounter, of healing? In June, following their decision to remove statues of Robert E. Lee and